GCSE Summer 2020 - Thread 11 Carry on Corona Cohort - Starting New Terms and Settings

And yes to wondering if there will be a crash after 6 months of doing very little, we are back to 2x school (y10 as well as y12, different schools), hockey, football, Explorers, part time job. Y10 is back swimming x5. I'm back to being a taxi plus yoga and dance classes on top of work.

Sorry to hear of positive cases, inevitable I suppose. I live in the SE in a low incidence area and it's almost impossible to get tests at the moment (lots of discussion on social media) as all the resource has been diverted to the high incidence areas.

Piggy - mine's an early riser too, if he's not up by 7.30 I wonder if he's ok. He has Asperger's and likes routine.

Flyingpandas - not only will mine not eat peas and sweetcorn he won't eat sausage or mash either. Or broccoli or carrot. He only likes strongly flavoured foods, so is perfectly happy with curries, stir fries, noodles, middle eastern food, Mexican, pasta with tomato sauce. But nothing plain. Hates roast dinners. He loves cooking though and is interested in nutrition.

I don't know monkey. The email said a number of students. His school has excellent zoning to keep year 12 and 13 apart and I guess my DS does different subjects. We got the email at 11 pm. Really impressed by how late someone at his school is working on all this.

Oh no Piggy. how much of a bubble has to isolate in his school?

Yes, funny how so many boys have spent lock down learning about fitness stuff.

According to DS if you want to build muscle you have to eat more as well as doing exercise, or your body does not have the resources it needs - his analogy that trying to bulk without increasing your calorie intake enough is like building a house with half the bricks you need. Protein shakes are good for getting the protein, but you need calories. Milk is good and can cheat your body as it feels like a drink, but has a reasonable amount of calories and protein. Peanuts are also calorie dense and "clean".

For the exercise, if you don't have equipment he says calisthenics (body weight exercises, pull ups, push ups, dips, squats) are good, or could join a gym for a while. Can use resistance bands if not strong enough to do the full body weight yet. Loads of stuff available on line (I guess the problem is finding the right stuff).

My two DSs have both got a lot less fussy in the last year, but DS1 has a friend who only eats fish and chips or pasta with peas, cheese and garlic bread - even at Christmas! Both my DSs hate peas, the only vegetable they both like is carrots, but will eat broccoli, beans and mushrooms if presented to them. Both were brilliant as babies, ate everything I gave them, not sure where I went wrong but not helped by the fact that DH fussy about veg.

Oh no @Piggywaspushed

Positive case confirmed at DS's school

My younger 2 are super fussy. Ds2 will pick out the tomato, pepper, onion, mushroom etc out of spaghetti bolognese!

Ok I take back everything I said about DS being focused and organised - his first bit of homework is due tomorrow and he hasn't done it

I live in hope that one day, he will have a bum again and proper calf muscles in the legs so he can wear the skinny trousers all his mates are wearing. (Oh I sound dreadful but this is my dream).

OMG I want macaroni cheese now. That sounds lush! DS1 would have been exactly the same. My 7yo, on the other hand, would have scoffed the lot. Comes to something when our16yo is fussier than most of the Y3 kids who come for tea!

At least we have similar issues and can sympathise with each other! I live in hope that one day DS1 will eat a pea by mistake and realise that it will not kill him

Oh my goodness! That picking things out of the food habit drives me up the wall. I cooked macaroni cheese this afternoon and thought I’d add some mushrooms to it, DH wanted prawns in it, so I added that too. Delicious! Not for DS. He picked out every single bit of mushroom & prawn. Coincidentally, DS2 who is on ADHD medication, is the one that’s been going to the gym, really committed eats well and bulked up. He used to be my skinniest dc.

@Shimy I'm not a massive fan of snaking either but snacking is another matter!

It's a tricky one isn't it. DS1 lives to snack but eats a hugely restricted diet generally. I think so much of the food thing and appetite is down to personality - and whilst DS has a decent appetite (though impacted by the medication he takes for ADHD) he is soooooo restricted in what he will actually eat! He has the kind of eating preferences you'd expect of a five year old and is very conscious that as he gets older this becomes less and less socially acceptable.

For example I cooked sausages, pasta, peas and sweetcorn for tea tonight. Younger two DC devoured the lot. DS1 painstakingly picked out EVERY SINGLE PEA AND SWEETCORN and handed them to his brothers to eat and then just ate the sausages and pasta He eats cooked broccoli (maybe a mouthful), raw carrots (occasionally but not if he can help it) and a small amount of fruit (green apples but not red ones, red grapes but not green ones, etc etc) he might look OK on the outside but I'm really not sure how healthy the inside is!

I do my best with vitamin and fish oil supplements but DS has a long way to go before he gets to what I'd consider a 'normal' way of eating.

On the plus side, he is actually eating at college (he would go from 7:30 - 4pm without either eating or using the toilet when he was at school). So that's a start, I guess.

DS2 (Year 11) has also developed an interest in physique. He's eating huge amounts of meat and made me buy protein weetabix. He'd like some protein shakes but I'm resisting given the amount of meat he's consuming. We bought him weights and a bench for his birthday.

He's definitely got a plan about what he's trying to achieve with his body. Carefully considered regime for rowing. I'm really impressed and a bit shocked that he has it in him. This is not a child I thought had the necessary self-discipline.

God I love doughnuts!!

Can't believe all these boys into their fitness and protein shakes. I have to laugh because my dd is a vegetarian who doesn't like vegetables 🙄🙄 and who's diet is total shit!

I wish she would try looking after herself a bit better!

Doesn’t like snaking , neither do I but I love a snack.

@FlyingPandas Your DS certainly doesn’t need protein shakes. If my DS did half of what yours was doing, I think I’d go temporarily crazy with joy. I don’t how you get someone to love food. I raised him trying lots of different foods, most home cooked but he’s always been a picky eater. Doesn’t like snaking either. He mentioned he might try doughnuts 3 days ago, so I’ve rushed out everyday to get a bag. I noticed both bags had disappeared by bedtime each day and was really pleased. That was until he asked this afternoon, where the doughnuts were? turns out he hasn’t eaten any, DH has been eating the whole lot.

@Shimy thanks for info.

Seems like there’s a lot of dc here doing Economics. Very interesting subject, thoroughly enjoyed it when I did it back in 1988.

@KingscoteStaff snorting here at the comment about the microwaves! It's all about priorities I guess!

Interested to read all the comments about DC interest in health, fitness, protein etc. DS1 is studying biology A level and is very into exercise - he has a punch bag and does daily exercises with weights as well as attending two intensive karate sessions a week. He is now 6ft 1, has really good muscle definition and a stomach like a washboard But his interest does absolutely NOT extend to clean eating, non processed food or protein shakes. He'd have to give up his coke, pizza and chocolate habits and that is so not going to happen In his defence he has a lot of food sensory issues associated with his Aspergers, which impacts on what he can tolerate - he would never manage any kind of milk or protein shake as he would gag. And he wouldn't recognise a wholegrain if it came up and said hello...

Is anyone else glad it's Friday tomorrow?! I feel as if it has been a very long week. DS seems to be taking college in stride but I'm slightly concerned that he hasn't quite taken on board the requirement to do 4-5 hours of independent study per subject per week. Homework prep has been done but that's it.

Thanks for new thread @OrangeCinnamon1 - just been catching up from end of last thread. DS so happy to be in school, very chatty and surprisingly organized- also feel that my original son has gone missing 😂😂. Economics really popular so largest class, and some have already dropped out of Maths (they had a test first lesson) so think school are focused as they know it could all go to pot. We’ve had Covid here but just hope we don’t get it again 😱

@icanbewhatiwant the shakes are high in protein so can be used alongside exercise to help build muscle. They are good for very slim people who want to increase muscle mass/bulk up plus & body builders use them as well. There are so many different types on the market to the extent it’s difficult to know which ones to buy. They come in two different forms (I think), powder or ready made milk shakes and in 3 different flavours: chocolate, strawberry and vanilla.
Naturally when I read that some ds’s had been using it to build, I zoned in on it. To get the most out of it some form of weight building exercise needs to be done as well (this will be the tough bit for ds1 the most unsportiest person ever!).

@Shimy @crazycrofter @Monkey2001 I don't know anything about the protein shakes you are all talking about. Is this something they combine with exercise? As I said upthread Ds only weighed 6 stone 4lbs. last time he got on the scales a few months ago. He won't get on again as he's too conscious of being so light and skinny. He doesn't exercise much...just football at lunchtimes. Meaning he's not eating all his lunch because he's playing football. But he does finish it when he gets home. He's never had much of an appetite.

Ds bought forms home from school for us to sign if we are going to collect our dc's regularly when they have a free morn. or afternoon. We are signing to say they will study at home too. But ds only wants collecting every other Tuesday. So I had to sign the Tuesday week 2 box. It's not that easy as most parents work. Only the school buses travel there at the usual time. So it'll only be parents that are not working the free afternoons or dc's that can walk, cycle etc.
My oldest stayed all day until he could drive. But the forms are new, due to Covid I expect.

@KingscoteStaff
Thankfully, my virtual meet, next week, with DDs Form Tutor to discuss how she’s settled in, is on a one to one basis!
Meanwhile, I’ve had an AIBU moment on my commute home.
ABS light came on and the car was driving like a bag of hammers.
Soo, ‘hoys’ hazards on hoping to nurse the sodding thing home in inside lane- whilst been subjected to copious lorry drivers sounding horns at me and flashing lights after they’d overtaken me.
Have the GAVs or CAGs malarkey addled my brain?